Nick Clegg has said that “no amount of money can absolve” News International from the “grotesque” hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone.

The company is close to agreeing a £3m settlement with the family of the murdered schoolgirl – whose voicemails were allegedly deleted by a private investigator when she first went missing – including a personal £1m charity donation from Rupert Murdoch.

Clegg said: “It is not for me to decide what money News International offer the Dowlers. I think it is very, very important we now give the Dowler family the time and space they need to rebuild their lives and move on.

“I have met them and they are a lovely, strong, every-day family who lost their daughter and were dealing with that terrible tragedy and even then these journalists – it’s just grotesque – were invading their privacy.

“In a sense I think, and I am sure the Dowlers feel the same, that no amount of money can absolve people for what they did.”

The size of the compensation dwarfs other settlements in the saga, such as the £100,000 awarded to actress Sienna Miller and £20,000 to former Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray.

Murdoch’s critics have dismissed the £3m as relative chickenfeed for a man of his wealth. One leading media lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, described it as “conscience money, not compensation”.

But the Hacked Off campaign, which has fought for a proper investigation into the scandal, said it was a “welcome signal of remorse” from News International.

It added: “We also wait to hear about the nature of the settlement with the other alleged 4,000 victims of phone hacking.”

(Source: MediaGuardian)

No related posts.